Rantor, founding member of the International League of Luddites, headquartered in South Austin, Texas 78704, celebrates National Indignation Week every day of the year.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

When getting skinny is bad for the health

It's reported that Ziff-Davis has filed for bankruptcy. I can remember when PC Magazine was a must-read. It arrived more than once a month. It was fat with ads. It's been slenderizing for quite some time now. Once, it was one of the first publications read as soon as it arrived, and from cover to cover, too. Lately, it's been one of the last. How times have changed! I feel nostalgic for the days of acoustic couplers, the days when people who knew what a C-prompt was and a few DOS commands ruled the electronic universe, and for the early days of the Internet before the advent of Mosaic. People learned as they went and there were no formal credentials required to just step right up and embark on an adventure. The news came first from the WSJ, which also contained a wonderful piece about Mable John. It was news to me that she's the sister of Little Willie John. My favorite Willie John records are "Sleep" and "Talk to Me," although "Fever" may have been his biggest hit.